Changing perceptions of family cohesion and power across adolescence

Adolescents' perceptions of family relationships were studied using the FAST, a spatial technique in which wooden figures were placed on a board to represent cohesion and power. 150 subjects, drawn equally from sixth, ninth, and twelfth grades, portrayed the family in 2 representations: as perceived typically and ideally. Father-mother, father-child, and mother-child dyads were analyzed. Perceptions were strongly influenced by age, type of representation, and dyad. In accord with a developmental perspective, older adolescents portrayed less cohesion in parent-child dyads and smaller power differences in all dyads than did younger adolescents. In accord with family systems theory, the father-mother dyad was depicted as the most cohesive and as near egalitarian in power. At all ages and in both representations, parents were perceived as more powerful than their children. The family was generally portrayed as cohesive, significantly more so in the ideal than typical representation. Furthermore, in the ideal representation there were no significant power differences between the parents but moderate power differences in the parent-child dyads. Results were interpreted from both developmental and family systems perspectives.